Final Quiz: The 7 Wastes of Lean

What is “value” as defined by lean?

Why is transportation wasteful?

Which of the following are examples of the waste of transportation?

A brilliant way to eliminate waste involving transportation is to increase batch size, so that each transportation trip can deliver larger numbers of items (this leads to fewer trips overall).

Eliminating the waste of transportation may require physically rearranging your work area—or even your entire facility layout!

Why is inventory wasteful? Check all that apply.

Keeping lots of inventory on hand is good because it helps prevent backorders and disappointing customers.

A brilliant way to eliminate waste involving transportation is to increase batch size, so that each transportation trip can deliver larger numbers of items (this leads to fewer trips overall).

Eliminating the waste of transportation may require physically rearranging your work area—or even your entire facility layout!

What is the waste of motion?

The waste of motion can be eliminated by moving more quickly.

Simplifying a task is a good way to eliminate motion.

Large work areas and workbenches help to reduce motion.

The waste of waiting can apply to anything, including people, machines, material, and information.

Idleness is always wasteful. If you don’t have anything to do, you better start doing something!

The root cause of many delays is not in the place you experience it. Instead, you may have to look upstream to some other process for the source of the delay.

Adding buffer inventory is a preferred way to eliminate the inefficiency caused by waiting or delay.

What are the two definitions for the waste of over processing?

If there is not a clear standard for how to do the job, someone might regularly “overdo it” and do more than what is required. This is over processing.

Sometimes the waste of over processing occurs simply because defects are accepted as normal and therefore tolerated.  

A well-intentioned operator individually packages parts as they are produced at their station. The parts are then moved to another department where the work is continued. The first thing the next operator does is remove the packaging because it interferes with the work they need to perform. Is this over processing?

What are the two reasons why over production is wasteful?

Since lean is about making the best use of one’s time and resources, if you complete your work it’s important to stay busy and keep working on something else—even to get ahead of schedule.

Let’s say you have a few process steps (or departments) that do work in batches (there’s obvious inventory backed up in between them). What might you do to reduce over production?

If “the next process is your customer,” which of the follow is true?

Adding inspection is the best way to eliminate defects.

What is a poka yoke?

Behind every defect is a problem that needs to be solved. Only solving the problem will make the defects go away.